Shades of Allegiance

by Sandy Williams

  “Valt is here.” Arek pointed to a small structure near the foot of the Tamori Cliffs. “In the detainment cells.”

  That was the opposite direction from the institute where Rohn was currently brainwashing his cadets.

  “The barracks are up there too,” Ash said, standing to his left. “There’s a chance Rohn can communicate with his anomalies. Do you think he would send them to free Valt?”

  Rykus looked at her. “Do you think Rohn knows we’re coming?”

  “I think he might be able to sense me when I get close. I’m not sure, but we should be ready for it.”

  “We’re not splitting up,” he said, just in case she was thinking about it. He didn’t want her alone near a telepath.

  “I can go to the barracks,” Arek said.

  Rykus nodded. “That would work. You don’t need to do anything unless his anomalies look like they’re making a move. Can Keen or Javko go with you?”

  “Javko won’t return from the Blood Fields until tomorrow. Keen is in Arcadis.”

  “Okay,” Ash said. “So just you. Better than nothing.”

  Arek’s head swiveled her way. He gave her a look that said he was significantly better than nothing.

  “Let’s move out,” Rykus said. They’d delayed long enough already. He wanted to get this done. Once they had Rohn in custody and confirmed Valt was secure, he would be able to shake the clinging feeling that something was about to go very wrong.

  28

  They exited Arek’s quarters and stepped out into one of Caruth’s extremely rare tepid nights. During the short intermissions between the wet and dry seasons, the weather usually vacillated between insufferably hot and dangerously cold—the perfect climate to filter out the weak from the strong. In her two years of training, Ash couldn’t remember more than a handful of days that weren’t miserable, so at least one thing was going for them. Maybe two if Arek remained reliable.

  His cooperation bothered her. She kept staring at him—thinking at him—trying to decide if he’d been unlocked, but he didn’t feel like War Chancellor Hagan had before he was killed on Ephron. He didn’t feel like Toman either. He just felt… there.

  “Sync comms,” Arek said.

  Ash tapped on her cuff, accepted the encrypted invite.

  “If this goes smoothly, it shouldn’t take long.” She hooked a voice-link, courtesy of Tahn, over her right ear.

  “About the comms,” Rykus said. “Our cuffs are compromised. Don’t say anything you don’t want our enemies to hear.”

  That information was met with a barely visible jaw clench, followed immediately by a mechanical nod. Arek’s gaze shifted to Ash.

  “Dr. Monick is working tonight. If anything happens to her, I’ll kill you.” He turned north and strode across the commons, headed toward the barracks where, hopefully, the majority of Rohn’s anomalies slept soundly.

  “Well, that was interesting,” she said when he was out of earshot. “You think he has a thing for Katie?”

  Rykus scowled. “No.”

  Ash fought a smile. They’d been engaged years ago. It hadn’t worked out, but Rykus still protected her like a sister.

  Probably why it hadn’t worked out.

  “No as in he better not?” Ash asked. “Or no, you don’t think so?”

  “It’s not the right time to provoke me, Ash.”

  “Oh sorry. It’s a side effect of being back here. Makes me all nostalgic.”

  He put a hand on her shoulder, squeezed. “You mean it keeps you from thinking about the institute.”

  Her expression soured. “It did until you brought it up.”

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s make this quick.”

  They headed due east and kept to the shadows. It wasn’t unusual for people to be out after dark. The anomalies practiced nighttime drills and frequently stayed up late, cramming for the seemingly endless number of competency exams the instructors threw at them. But this was loyalty-training week. Other than medical personnel and support staff, the base was mostly quiet.

  The stillness added to her unease. The chirps of insects and whistle of the wind was an exact replica of the soundtrack to the first time she’d gone through the loyalty training. When she’d finally clawed her way back to reality with the help of her fail-safe and a raging desire to preserve and protect the Coalition, she and Rykus had stepped outside for fresh air.

  Really, it had been for an escape. She hated that building. They weren’t far from it now. It was a white-walled monstrosity on the outside and in, with bright white tiled floors and white doors and white medical equipment. The only thing not white in the whole damn place were the doctors and scientists in their light blue lab coats.

  Neither had said a word to each other when they’d exited the building together three and a half years ago. They just sat on a bench in silence, entangled in their own thoughts and emotions. But she’d felt how much Rykus had loathed the loyalty training. It felt like he’d loathed her as well, and she’d been drowning in an irrational need to please him.

  Rykus placed a hand on the small of her back. “You got this?”

  Hell. She needed to get her head on straight. She had a mission to accomplish, and she was so damn close to revenge.

  “I’m good,” she said.

  They made their way to the loading dock on the back side of the building. The institute had security, but it was more focused on monitoring the anomalies than the comings and goings of the medical staff. They made it inside without being stopped, though they likely had only a few minutes before someone noticed them.

  It smelled like fear and sterile hallways.

  Focus. Breathe. Get to Rohn, then get the hell out. In ten minutes tops, she could have him in a cell next to Valt’s soon-to-be-dead body.

  Someone stepped out of a room, comm-cuff in hand. Ash let Rykus take the lead.

  “Doctor,” he said.

  The man looked up. His jaw went slack. She and Rykus weren’t fully decked out in ready-for-war gear, but they were noticeably armed, dressed in black fatigues, with a few flash grenades and other tools hooked onto their belts and stored in pockets.

  “You are…”

  “Commander Rykus. You need to leave the building.” He had a hand on the doctor’s shoulder and was already guiding him toward the exit. He plucked the cuff from his hand.

  “Rykus? But I’m monitoring vitals—”

  “What room?”

  “I need to—”

  “What room is Rohn in?” he demanded.

  Ash gave the doctor three seconds, then she moved. She fired her nonlethal Syra60, then dragged his unconscious body inside his office. After securing him with a quick-tie, she reemerged into the hall and caught up with Rykus as he opened the door to the stairs.

  “Fourth floor,” he said.

  They jogged up the steps, moving quickly but quietly in the empty stairwell.

  Rykus cracked open the door. A man’s scream echoed from the corridor. Chill bumps shot down her arms. It was a sound of terror, a sound of wills breaking and synapses being rerouted, a sound that was too familiar. Every anomaly screamed during loyalty training.

  Ash had to force herself to follow Rykus. Her legs felt like they were encased in breach foam.

  Blue-coated doctors stood in the corridor, grouped around an observation window. Two guards stood there as well, momentarily distracted by the still-screaming anomaly.

  She kept her nonlethal pointed down and slightly hidden behind her. Rykus hadn’t drawn his. They wanted to get to Rohn with as little resistance as possible.

  A guard looked in their direction, immediately recognized they shouldn’t be there, and went for his weapon.

  “Hands up—”

  Ash fired.

  He dropped hard.

  She re-aimed at the second guard, but the observers had moved, blocking her shot.

  “Get down!” the guard yelled. As soon as the doctors ducked, Ash pulled the trigger. The guard went limp.
/>   “Rykus?” a female voice said.

  Ash swiveled her weapon to her left.

  Katie’s hands went up. She stumbled back.

  Ash grabbed her shoulder and steered her toward the startled doctors. “Get them out of here.”

  “We need Rohn,” Rykus said. “Is he in there?”

  Katie stuttered, her mind playing catch-up. “Rohn?”

  “Is he in there?” Rykus demanded.

  “Yes, but…”

  Ash didn’t hear the last part of her sentence. The voice-link hooked over her ear clicked on.

  Arek said, “Rohn’s anomalies aren’t here.”

  It took a solid heart beat to understand what that meant.

  “He knows we’re h—” A phantom battering ram slammed into her head the same instant the door beside the doctors burst open.

  Rykus drew his weapon, spun, but the anomaly barreled into him.

  Ash focused through the pain in her mind, fired two times.

  A nonlethal pulse hit the anomaly in the shoulder, singeing electrodes still stuck to his bare chest.

  Ash strode toward the door. Rohn rushed out.

  Her Syra60 didn’t fire when she pulled the trigger again—it needed time to recharge—but Rykus rolled and kicked.

  Rohn took the hit on his shin, then swung his leg toward Rykus’s face.

  Rykus blocked the blow.

  The hurt in her head vanished, and all her training, all her experience and instincts, heightened her sense of time and space.

  She saw the doctors scatter. Heard the stairwell door open.

  She spun and fired. The damn weapon still didn’t shoot.

  She drew her Berick 910 at the same time the guard at the stairwell took aim.

  The bullet’s impact made her shot go wide. Lightweight armor kept her from getting a hole in the chest, but it took a second to shake out the numbness from her arm.

  A second was all it took for another man to emerge from the stairwell, yank the weapon from the guard’s hand, and pull the trigger.

  This time the hit knocked her down.

  Rykus opened fire behind her, forcing the new anomaly to duck for cover.

  “Go!” Ash jumped back to her feet and sprinted to Katie and the shell-shocked doctors. “Go!”

  Katie looked at her, then the anomaly slowly pushing himself up off the ground.

  Ash almost used her Berick, restrained herself at the last second, then hit him with the now-charged pulse-pistol again.

  A door at the other end of the hall opened. Two men charged out. Both wore the training uniforms issued to anomalies.

  “Kill them!” Rohn ordered.

  They didn’t slow.

  She got off another shot from her pulse-pistol but didn’t get a third.

  Screw it. She aimed her Berick. Too late. The anomaly was damn fast. He darted left and was on her before she could pull the trigger.

  He nailed her with a strike to the throat that nearly crippled her. She choked and fought for air.

  He went for her gun. She let him have it so that she could swing her elbow into his temple.

  He collapsed, his chin hitting the ground hard. He immediately pushed himself back up and reclaimed her weapon.

  She kicked his wrist, snapping a carpal bone, and the Berick spun across the white tiles.

  The anomaly grimaced but got to his feet and charged.

  A bullet hit him square in the chest.

  Beside her, Katie cursed, scurried forward, and pressed her palms over the anomaly’s wound.

  Ash pulled her off. “No. It’s not safe.”

  “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.

  “Ambush.” She gripped Katie’s arm and maneuvered her toward the side hall the doctors had backed into. “Stay here—”

  A door to another observation chamber opened. An anomaly entered the hall. He shoved a woman out of his way and stalked toward Ash.

  Damn it.

  She put two rounds in his chest. He stumbled, hit a knee, then got back up.

  She fired a third time.

  “Secure the doors,” Rykus ordered. “All of them.” Then he ran, sprinting after Rohn.

  Ash cursed again, pressed her nonlethal weapon into Katie’s hand, and said, “Stay here. Shoot any anomaly who belongs to Rohn, then secure them in a locked room.”

  Ash tapped her voice-link and ran. “Monick’s on level four with a Syra60, six other doctors, and two injured, possibly dead anomalies.”

  “Almost there,” Arek returned. “Pursuing three of Rohn’s recruits. Mine have ripped sleeves. Don’t shoot them.”

  “Affirmative. We’re descending the south stairwell. Rohn’s in the lead.” She jumped the rails, falling to the next set of stairs instead of running down them. Gunshots rang out below.

  “Rohn’s outside,” Rykus yelled. “I’m taking fire.”

  “I see them,” Arek reported through the voice-link. “They’re armed. I thought this was a surprise visit.”

  “So did we,” Rykus said.

  Ash reached his side. “He mobilized his anomalies. That took planning.”

  “It took advance notice,” Rykus said. “He had to know we were coming before we reached Arek. Can he sense you that far?”

  “Hell if I know.” She peeked out the door, ducked back before she got her head blown off. “Arek?”

  “They’re advancing. My anomalies aren’t armed. We can’t get close.”

  “Can you get to Valt?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Secure him. We’ll deal with Rohn.”

  Rykus unhooked a flash grenade from his belt. “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  He launched it out the door.

  The world flashed behind her closed eyelids, the boom hit her chest, then she was moving, exiting beside Rykus and firing on the disoriented anomalies.

  She tried not to kill them. Most of them went down with one bullet. A few took two. One anomaly was too damn tough. She unloaded six bullets into his chest, then pushed the guilt into a corner of her mind to deal with later.

  Her voice-link chimed, signaling an open comm channel.

  “This is Commander Rhys Rykus,” her fail-safe said, running beside her. “I have seven injured anomalies on the southeast quad. They need medical care and guards.”

  “General Pevy,” a voice returned. “What are you doing on my planet?”

  “Rohn has been aiding the enemy, sir. We need help apprehending him. I will explain—”

  “You need to stand down,” the general said. “I will have a security detail at your location in two minutes.”

  Rykus ended the open transmission. Hopefully, the general would get the anomalies help.

  They reached the door to the armory.

  Rykus met her gaze. Nodded.

  Ash swung the door open. They charged inside, weapons sweeping the room.

  A shadow moved to her left. She spun and fired.

  The anomaly took the hit in the gut. He stumbled into a shelving unit, then lunged forward.

  Her side kick caught him in the jaw. She dove on top of him when he doubled over, then quick-tied one of his wrists.

  He swung his free hand at her head.

  She snapped the other end of the tie to a pipe in the wall.

  He grabbed her ankle, flipped her to the ground.

  Her breath whooshed from her lungs. She rolled and swung a knee into his stomach, then darted out of reach.

  She should have just killed him. This cost too much time. Rykus had already left the storage room.

  She rushed into the next room, an empty chamber, and spotted an open door. She reached it and shut it behind her. Its heavy, reinforced panel made a loud clang. She’d have some warning if an anomaly followed them in.

  An assortment of rifles, hand guns, and other lethal and nonlethal weapons lined both walls. It was like walking through Tahn’s catalog.

  Ammunition was stored elsewhere, so she bypassed the more accurate weapon
s and grabbed a pair of pulse-pistols from their charging unit as she passed. Another one was already missing, either swiped by Rykus or Rohn or another rogue anomaly.

  She exited the next open door and entered the firing range.

  Rykus had an anomaly on the ground. He quick-tied his hands. “That way!”

  Ash ran where he indicated to the opposite end of the empty chamber. It led outside. A hundred-meter gap separated her from a sub-atmo flight hangar.

  The door was cracked open. Rohn didn’t have time to go anywhere else.

  She sprinted the distance and reached the door right before Rykus caught up. In perfect sync, she swung it open and they swiveled inside.

  Rohn raced toward a CR2 maintenance shuttle.

  Ash planted her feet, took aim, and fired six charges from her newly acquired weapon. Every damn one of them missed. Accuracy of pulse-pistols was shit at this range.

  Rykus had kept running. He drew his weapon and called for Rohn to stop.

  Rohn hit the CR2’s belly, spun to the right, and ran.

  It was a bad decision. They didn’t want to kill him. He could have locked himself inside the transport, taken off, and bought some time before an air patrol brought him down. Now they would catch him.

  Rykus fired a shot at the door Rohn reached for.

  Ash rushed forward, closing the distance so she could hit him with the pulse-pistol.

  Suddenly Rykus stopped moving. He backpedaled.

  “Bomb! Bomb!” he yelled.

  Ash saw the flat disk attached to the shuttle’s fuselage the second before it exploded.

  Flames burned her hand and crawled up her sleeve. The material provided some protection, but she lay on her side and watched it begin to melt.

  Her brain was too rattled to immediately feel the pain. It came after several long seconds. She choked back a cry and rolled, smothering the fire beneath her.

  Coughs wracked her body. Her eyes stung and watered, her ears rang, and the pain was suddenly everywhere, lighting up every one of her nerve endings.

  “Rykus,” she croaked out.

  Push through. She had to push through this.